Art: Thank you for that. Yes, a Wiki is exactly the kind of format about
which I am thinking. Just as on Wikipedia, however, many articles are
locked, and therefore NOT editable by the general public (or even members,)
due to copyright restrictions. New articles would generally be full Wikis;
pre-existing articles may or may not be, depending on copyright. Both new
and old articles would allow comments and ratings to be posted after the
articles.
We don't need permission to do this; I agree on that. The fundamental
question, though, is what is perceived as needed. There is no point my
spending a couple of hundred hours building out something that no one will
use.
If there is an initial willingness to share preexisting work, I'll take that
as an invitation, and go ahead with posting the articles we get along with a
small Wiki, which the members can build out as they desire. It can grow
from there. If nothing is offered, I'm not going to bother people about it,
but it tells me that no one is really interested enough to put something in
after it is a Wiki, either.
Even so, I can at least set up a Wiki for the group, and see what you make
of it.
Here is one thing that I see as absolutely necessary, though. Even though
this would be an S-Scale site, Wiki, and group, it would need to be open to
scale-independent articles, as well as articles based on other scales and,
yes, even Hi-Rail and AF.
Why? Because these things all cross-connect, and the beauty of a Wiki is
that you can build out and follow what interests YOU, and completely ignore
(and not be bothered by) stuff in which you are NOT interested. By creating
the "S Scale Wiki" so that articles relevant to other scales and interests
can posted and built out, you will probably find interesting and useful
ideas and information not directly related to S scale (but applicable
there,) and you might even find you pull some new adherents to S scale
modeling.
Accordingly, I have registered modeltrainwiki.com. It's going to start out
as a general model train wiki, but the first stub built off the home will be
for S scale modeling. How much goes in there will be up to you all.
Before anyone gets huffy about polluting S Scale with AF or other scales,
the S scale section would only be for S scale, and not for anything else.
That would be up to YOU, not me. There would simply also be other areas on
the website where there is information on anything else having to do with
model railroading. That potentially draws in thousands of other users, who
can make the information YOU post exposed to many more potential readers.
And no, before anyone asks, I haven't brought up or posted this idea
anywhere else, or with any other scale. The initial buildout would be what
the people in this group want to build.
Nothing is on the domain yet; I haven't even set it up on my server. I'll
post in here when the Wiki is up and ready for building.
If anyone has access to articles that can be posted, please let me know.
Brian
________________________________
From: Art Armstrong
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 2:11 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} A lot of yakking - who is doing?
Hello Brian and all -
We will never get a consensus on anything on this list - fortunately
we don't need one. Also we don't need anyone's permission to do this. We can
forge ahead on our own as long as our spirits last.
I must admit I was put-off by your question about "articles" that
could be printed. This makes it sound like a magazine and I thought that
road had been crossed.
I am still hoping for a Wiki-type site that is open to all and
changeable by many - always up to date and growing.
I have put together a website that hopefully will illustrate some of
the differences. The point is that the Wiki style allows modification by
many others - not just the site owner. This encourages a growth of
information and greater use by scalers.
With great humility I called my site "S-scale Knowledge Base" - the
site is just an illustration. The operating software will be up to others -
probably Brian if he is willing.
As far as cost - I suggest that Brian work up a cost for development
and one year's operation of this kind of site. Those who wish to can send
checks in to him or to a stake holder - when we reach the required amount he
can cash the checks and start the project. If we don't get enough money soon
enough he can destroy the checks and we can get back to our usual
discussions.
Here it is
http://webpages.charter.net/aarmstro/index.htm
<http://webpages.charter.net/aarmstro/index.htm>
----- Original Message -----
From: Vivamus
I'm still not certain it should be done, but more importantly, I'm
not sure
this group wants it done. *I* think it is greatly needed, from what
little
I've seen, but what do I know -- I'm brand new here. I'm not about
to swim
upstream on this one. Either there's a general consensus that this
would be
good, or it isn't worth doing.
To answer your question, what I need to know is, how many *existing*
articles could be committed to the project. I also need to know if
they are
currently in digital form, or if they would need to be scanned and
converted. If there's enough, I'll do it. (Note that the articles
need to
be able to be freely displayed on the web. They will retain whatever
copyright they currently have, but permissions need to come with the
articles.)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
